


Alliance

by hawkeward



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Dragon Age Prompt Generator, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-11
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 11:10:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3975871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawkeward/pseuds/hawkeward
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dragon Age Prompt Generator fic, "Justice/Bethany Hawke; Abuse of Power"</p>
<p>Bethany Hawke does not like the direction her brother has taken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“My brother has gone mad,” Bethany said matter-of-factly.

There was no response, but she hadn’t expected one. Dead men, as a rule, were not good conversationalists.

“Maybe I should have seen it, before he became Champion,” she continued. “Maybe if I had been  _here,_  instead of with the Wardens…”

But instead there had been fire and blood on the steps of the Gallows, the crackle of magic and desperation in the air, battling mages barely older than she had been when she came to Kirkwall. Her brother had cut them down and stepped over their bodies as if they were meaningless,  _nothing_ —and how close had she come to being one of them?

What would Father have said?

She shook that thought away. “But now he’s viscount, with the full support of both the nobility and the templars behind him. More powerful than Knight-Commander Meredith ever was.” She remembered his face as they settled the circlet on his head, hardened and alien. “And more angry.”

Was it so long ago that he had carried her on his back and let her braid ribbons into his hair? It made her heart ache.

There was still no sign of life from her companion, but she pressed on. “They told me about you, the Wardens at the Vigil. About how you were, before. That you fought a cruel ruler to free the people trapped as her subjects, and swore revenge against the Darkspawn for one murdered man.”

Something finally seemed to flicker in his hollow eyes, like a knife sliding deftly between ribs.

“I know you hear me, spirit—or whatever you are.” She paused, the words sticking in her throat. “Joi- Come with me. Help me end what my brother has become. Rain justice down on this whole rotten city.”

For a moment, nothing. Then his white, stiff lips quirked into a smile.

“Better than haunting some corpse,” he rasped, and sat up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not strictly a second chapter, but a later follow-up on the same idea... ft. guest appearance by Cole.

“It was brave of you to give him a home.”

Skyhold’s garden is quiet, faint strains of the Chant escaping from the chapel the only sound over the gentle stirring of wind through the green canopy of leaves above. Bethany is stretched out on a bench, waiting for the Inquisitor to finish consulting with his advisors—it shouldn’t take long, but Wardens sleep when they can, even bare minutes at a time. 

She opens one eye to the sun-backed silhouette of a boy, the floppy brim of his too-large hat casting a shadow over her face. She can make out wispy blond hair framing wide eyes, a prominent nose—she doesn’t remember seeing him before, but the keep is large and crowded with the Inquisitor’s faithful.

Her brow furrows as his words penetrate her grogginess. “Beg pardon?”

“Your friend. Or, your friend’s friend.” The boy’s eyes grow distant, staring through her. “Body broken, he slipped like a sigh through the Veil, finally free. Can’t follow, fly,  _fade_ —still stuck half-filling the shell, echoes too loud in an agony of emptiness. _Perhaps now it will be Justice and not Vengeance that rises from my corpse…_ is it justice to be alone with what has been done?”

Bethany stares, raised up on her elbows. “How do you—,” she begins, but the boy cuts her off.

“You were scared, but you took him in. You remembered what he could be.” He hesitates, shifting so his shadow no longer falls across her. Sunlight dazzles her eyes, making them water. 

“You didn’t see a demon. He won’t be one for you." 

When her vision clears, he’s gone. She twists around, but the only other soul in view is a kneeling elf, delicately trimming dead blossoms from the low bushes near the wall. Unsettled, she lies back again and closes her eyes. The murmur of the Chant washes over her.

She forgets.


End file.
